Peninsular War Skirmish Game Setup

Did a preliminary, test, setup for my other game at Enfilade in May. This time it's a Peninsular War game, again using One-Hour Wargames Skirmish for rules. It'll have six players, three each for the French and British/Spanish Guerillas. Right now, I'm thinking of having the capture of the French general as the victory condition for the British and Spanish.

The French start the game occupying the village - which should give some balance as they'll have good cover against the Rifles better shooting stats.

A staged shot of the three units of attacking British ans Spanish. They'll start at the table edge, so they may not be so well-numbered by the time they get close to the French.

Spanish Guerillas. They'll have the Bruiser trait for hand to hand combat. They are supposed to capture the French general alive, but I may add some mechanism which they may end up killing him, thereby not getting a major victory.

The French general and his aide, defended by Nassauers - who've yet to have changed sides. I'm using the same figures along with the KGL in the La Haye Sainte game before this one.

95th Rifles and Cacadores.

French Dismounted Dragoons and Voltigeurs.

5/60th Rifles and Cacadores.

Polish light infantry on the French flank.

May not get around to playtesting this scenario, but just wanted to see how the table layout would look like. Shouldn't be too difficult to "wing it" at the convention, especially after two back to back games using the same rules the day before this one.

Until next time, best wishes to you all!

Storm The Farmhouse - Battle of La Haye Sainte - Game Day

Hello everyone! Been a while since I've posted, but just got back from a great game day at the Chehalis Veterans Memorial Museum. I was able to host my La Haye Sainte game using One-Hour Skirmish Wargames rules with six players. The game went well, and a lot of good suggestions were made by the players, as I'll be hostiIng this game again at Enfilade in May. There were several other games going on in the morning session as well as mine, so felt very fortunate to have my game filled. I stayed for the afternoon period and played in a Chain of Command game.

I almost was a no-show for the event as we had snow all day yesterday here in Steilacoom. Other areas had heavy rain, including where the museum is located in Chehalis, Washington - which is prone to flooding. However, the snow had melted off the roads in the morning, so I put on my big boy pants and heading down to the event. Glad I went as today was very sunny and beautiful. The picture below is from yesterday when I was conducting winter warfare training in the backyard with my sole trooper.

The weather today in front of the museum - there were several folks who didn't show up thinking today would be bad too. The weather here in the Pacific Northwest can be very goofy!

Here are pictures from the games today.

Above: French dragoons and sappers attempt to breakdown the defenses in the front of the farmhouse. This combined unit was later destroyed after failing a morale test - they took a lot of casaulties from British Rifles coming out of the sandpit.

Above: British Rifles advancing and firing on the French - all the players started with 12 figure units. I plan to reduce the Rifles unit to 8 figures, as they were a bit too powerful with their rifled muskets.

Above: Nassauers advancing to assist the KGL in the farmhouse.

Above: French Light Infantry Carabiniers assaulting the low walls of the farmhouse. Several made it over the wall and fought in hand to hand combat.

French Voltigeurs advancing towards the rear of the farmhouse.

A spectacular Battle on the Causeway Aztec v. Conquistador game run in both the morning and afternoon periods.

Games like this one made me feel fortunate to have players in my game. There weren't that many attendees - maybe 25 or so - mainly due to yesterday's weather.

Kevin Smyth's WW2 Pacific Theater game. He said the game didn't quite go exactly as he had envisioned. The Japanese, due to unusually good die rolls, managed to sink all of the Allied ships early on.

Wings of Glory WW1 aerial game.

The Patrol Phase of the Chain of Command game I played in, in the afternoon period. Note the laser doing the back azimuths for figure placement from the "locked" Jumping Off points. Although I only play these rules when my buddies host games, I do enjoy the Patrol Phase.

I ran a platoon of US Paratroopers, and thanks to very good shooting die rolls managed to destroy a platoon of Germans on their right flank.

Besides the gaming going on upstairs, the first floor has an excellent museum. It is privately funded, and showcases the sacrifices of veterans from the local area. These include those from the American Civil War to present. I took pictures of a few of the memorial displays from recent conflicts.

The one below includes the veteran's Cub Scout uniform.

Here's a picture of some of the many small arms displays throughout the museum. All of the items in the museum are private donations.

So, all in all a great game day - especially considering how I almost was not going to attend it. Thanks for stopping by, and wishing you all the best.

Storm The Farmhouse! La Haye Sainte One-Hour Skirmish Wargames Set-up

Some staged shots of a La Haye Sainte game using One-Hour Skirmish Wargames rules I will be hosted next month at the Veterans Museum in Chehalis, Washington.

I've used this scenario several times before using Black Powder on a larger table which included actions around the farm as well as the farm itself. This time, the game will be concentrated on the actual assault of the farm.

Newly arrived Nassauers assisting the KGL troops.

Major Baring commanding on horseback.

The back of the barn, missing the doors as they were burned for firewood the cold night before by the defenders.

View looking into the courtyard from the main house.

The little pond from which retreating Luneburg troops used their cooking pots to put out the fires.

French Carabiniers assaulting through the orchard.

French Voltigeurs supporting Engineers/Sappers who broke down the main gate to the farm.

A unit of 95th Rifles manning the "Sand Pit" on the far edge of the table.

The dashing Lieutenant Colonel Sharpe stroming out of the Sand Pit to attack the Prince of Orange.

Oh, and here's the 54mm figure of a Kospoth Regiment grenadier which I painted for my buddy who had an ancestor serve in that unit in the 1790's.

So much for now, nothing in the paint queue at the moment. I might work on the St Chamond 3D printed tank I've had sitting around for awhile. Until next time, thanks as always for visiting, and wishing you all the very best.

Northern Front Gameday

Just got back from a small game day gathering up in Shoreline - about 30 minutes or so (without traffic) above Seattle. It was great to see old friends and make new ones - although there wasn't a big turn out possibly due to this being scheduled on the same day as the annual Christmas Rampant gathering at Bruce Meyer's place in Gig Harbor. In fact, this was first time I didn't attend the game day at Bruce's. I made the conscious choice to show support for our northern brethren who usually have to make the hour or more drive down to our area in Tacoma. Having so few players, GM's decided to play in each other's games. An unplanned benefit was being able to play in more games than usual. I not only hosted my own Lion Gate game, but also played in an L’Arte De La Guerre and What A Tanker game. It was first time playing ADLG, but the GM was very experienced and made the game quite enjoyable. Well, enough with the long intro, here are pics from the event.

My Lion Gate One Hour Ancient & Medieval Skirmish game set up for the first period. After playing in the ADLG game, the GM for that game and another player and I played in this game.

I ran an attacking/invading warband against to defending warbands. The HTH rules worked out really well - if the defender beats the attacker's initial "to hit" score, the defender makes a counter attack. I survived a lot of attacks this way, and inflicted hits on the attacker.

The Grave Circle worked out great for putting dead inside - to keep track when doing the end of turn unit morale tests.

The ADLG game was based upon a Punic War battle (forgot the name of the battle). I command a Roman force, and along with another Roman player, we ended up defeating the Carthaginians. According the GM and my co-Roman player, a lot of the rules, particularly movement, are similar to DBA. The GM also said it has elements similar to Armati. I am unfamiliar with both rulesets, and played maybe a game each many years ago.

I ran a Hetzer in the What A Tanker game in the afternoon period. I had very good saving rolls, but terrible hit rolls. Ended up having my Hetzer destroyed at close range by a Sherman.

The GM provided some really good gaming aids.

Here are some of the other games from the morning and afternoon periods. The Ravens Feast game set up was quite impressive.

Ancients, To the Strongest below.

WWII Air Combat using Wings of Glory below. It was based upon a Japanese resupply mission.

Flames of War North Africa game below.

All in all a great time, but it'll be interesting to hear how the NHMGS BOD will determine if this is something we'll want to do in the future. Mainly due to the cost of using the space, and the turn out. This was set up by Kevin Smyth (A Gamer's Tale) as he's our go-to events coordinator, and it was supposed to be a sort of replacement for our Museum of Flight game day - which was cancelled (indefinitely) by the museum. Thanks for stopping in, and wishing you all the best.